h, Dorinda, Uncle Eugene hates us all. He is terribly bitter against
us. He would never, never listen to any request for help, even if I
could bring myself to make it."

"Mother, what was the trouble between us and Uncle Eugene? I have
never known the rights of it. I was too small to understand when I was
home before. All I remember is that Uncle Eugene never came to see us
or spoke to us when he met us anywhere, and we were all afraid of him
somehow. I used to think of him as an ogre who would come creeping up
the back stairs after dark and carry me off bodily if I wasn't good.
What made him our enemy? And how did he come to get all of
Grandfather Page's property when Father got nothing?"

"Well, you know, Dorinda, that your Grandfather Page was married
twice. Eugene was his first wife's son, and your father the second
wife's. Eugene was a great deal older than your father--he was
twenty-five when your father was born. He was always an odd man, even
in his youth, and he had been much displeased at his father's second
marriage. But he was very fond of your father--whose mother, as you
know, died at his birth--and they were good friends and comrades until
just before your father went to college. They then quarrelled; the
cause of the quarrel was insignificant; with anyone else than Eugene a
reconciliation would soon have been effected. But Eugene never was
friendly with your father from that time. I think he was jealous of
old Grandfather's affection; thought the old man loved your father
best. And then, as I have said, he was very eccentric and stubborn.
Well, your father went away to college and graduated, and then--we
were married. Grandfather Page was very angry with him for marrying
me. He wanted him to marry somebody else. He told him he would
disinherit him if he married me. I did not know this until we were
married. But Grandfather Page kept his word. He sent for a lawyer and
had a new will made, leaving everything to Eugene. I think, nay, I am
sure, that he would have relented in time, but he died the very next
week; they found him dead in his bed one morning, so Eugene got
everything; and that is all there is of the story, Dorinda."

"And Uncle Eugene has been our enemy ever since?"

"Yes, ever since. So you see, Dorinda dear, that I cannot ask any
favours of Uncle Eugene."

"Yes, I see," said Dorinda understandingly. To herself she added, "But
I don't see why _I_ shouldn't."

Dorinda thought hard and lo